In today's Friday Know-It-All, Editor Ira introduces us to the jazz-rock stylings of Jim Pepper.

What's your favorite Billboard Hot 100 hit to feature an authentic Indigenous American chant from a peyote ritual?

If you said anything other than "Witchi Tai To" by Everything Is Everything, I'm afraid you're incorrect. You probably didn't say that, though, because "Witchi Tai To" topped out at No. 69 on the Billboard chart in 1969 and has never gotten a lot of play on oldies radio. Even so, it's become a jazz-rock standard over the years. It's spawned dozens of covers by artists as wide-ranging as The Supremes, Bill Miller, Brewer & Shipley, Harpers Bizarre, and a lot of very '70s-looking people.

It's also a rare example of an explicitly Indigenous-themed song by an Indigenous artist making its way onto the pop charts. While there have been plenty of hits about Native American people and themes, the vast majority of those came from non-Native artists. That makes it all the more impressive that, a year before Native-rock legends Redbone dropped their groundbreaking first album, Everything Is Everything eased its way into the public consciousness with one of the dreamiest songs of peace ever to crack the Hot 100.

"Witchi Tai To" came from the mind of Jim Pepper, a major figure in the 1960s fusion jazz movement, and an undervalued innovator in American music. Pepper was born in Oregon in 1941 and claimed heritage from the Kaw and Creek Nations. He moved cross-country to New York City in the mid-1960s to pursue a career in music.

Pepper first found success in 1966 as a co-founder of The Free Spirits, a band often credited as the inventors of the jazz-rock genre. While the band members were primarily jazz musicians, guitarist Larry Coryell was fascinated by the possibilities of melding jazz with the psychedelic rock that was quickly beginning to dominate the cultural zeitgeist. Rock had incorporated elements of jazz ever since its early days, but the notion of a jazz-forward band that folded in rock elements was relatively new.

With Jim Pepper's saxophone and flute driving the jazz elements of their sound, The Free Spirits quickly became a buzzed-about band in the NYC club scene. The band's raucous, garage-rock style was propelled by wild, free-flowing solos by Pepper and Coryell. It was still a little too far-out to gain a mainstream following in 1966, but they were a cult favorite. In their brief existence as a band, Free Spirits opened for big names such as The Who, The Rascals, and Mitch Ryder, and supposedly also played alongside The Velvet Underground, The Doors, and Jimi Hendrix.

The Free Spirits only released one studio album, 1967's "Out of Sight and Sound," recorded with legendary producer Rudy Van Gelder. Not long after, Coryell and drummer Bob Moses left the group to join up with vibraphonist Gary Burton's up-and-coming jazz fusion band. In their wake, Pepper and bandmates Chris Hills and Chip Baker joined up with Hammond organist Lee Reinoehl and drummers John Waller and Jim Zitro to form Everything Is Everything in 1968.

Fusion jazz had exploded since The Free Spirits helped create its blueprint. Established artists like Miles Davis and Frank Zappa were pushing the envelope in every direction. Instrumental geniuses like Carlos Santana, Funkadelic, and Buddy Miles were blurring the lines between jazz and rock. Acts like Chicago and Blood, Sweat, and Tears were smoothing out the edges and making jazz-rock a viable radio format. It was as ideal a time as any for Jim Pepper to break through.

Pepper's new band moved away from the harder-edged sound of The Free Spirits in favor of a more hippie-fied sound that showcased the jazz elements even more. Pepper's flute and saxophone style had always drawn from the musical traditions of his Kaw and Creek ancestry. With Everything Is Everything, he dug deeper into those influences in an effort to fuse Native American music with the jazz-rock movement he'd helped create.

The resulting album, 1969's "Witchi Tai To," is a solid example of late '60s soft rock. It's a chill, mesmerizing piece of work that flows from low-key horn jams like "Naima/Rainbeaux" into sax-seasoned rockers like "Fork New York." There's no question, though, that the real standout is the title track.

Written and sung by Jim Pepper, "Witchi Tai To" features an upbeat rendition of a traditional peyote song he'd learned from his grandfather. The celebratory chant is repeated many times over Reinoehl's soaring organ, with Pepper contributing airy flute riffs and laid-back saxophone solos. It's a beautiful piece of music that exudes a timeless feeling of hope. It's no surprise that it caught the public's attention amidst the tumult of 1969. As of this writing, it remains the only hit song in U.S. chart history to incorporate an actual chant from an Indigenous American tribe.

Everything Is Everything disbanded not long after that taste of success. Jim Pepper branched out into solo work and collaborations with any number of jazz legends, including Don Cherry, Charles Haden, and John Scofield. Throughout his career, "Witchi Tai To" remained his signature song. He recorded multiple interpretations of the tune over the years as he explored new combinations of Native tradition and jazz experimentation.

Pepper died of lymphoma at age 50 in 1992, leaving behind a trailblazing legacy in the worlds of jazz, rock, and Indigenous music. He's posthumously received a Lifetime Achievement Award from First Americans in the Arts, been enshrined in the Native American Music Awards Hall of Fame, and had his former home in Portland entered into the National Register of Historic Places. His sheet music, saxophone, and hat are on display at the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C. The Jim Pepper Native Arts Council does important work for Indigenous arts funding and education in Oregon. All fitting tributes to an undersung innovator who helped birth a genre and gave the music of his heritage a rare spotlight on the international stage.